Residency Visa: Part 1 - San Borja

When I got into anthropology, it was to try to understand the unique human condition, to try to figure out why people behave the way they do when many times those behaviors result in negative health outcomes. What did not occur to me at the time, which most of my anthropology colleagues can also attest to, was that in order to answer these important questions and to get to those canoes and chicha, you must first undergo a long, tedious and sometimes frustrating process of bureaucracy in both the US and abroad. This process, while seemingly cumbersome, is ultimately important for the protection of both the applicants and the countries involved.

We've heard many stories about other PhD students' experiences with bureaucracy in Bolivia that we prepared ourselves for the worst. The one thing they all stressed was to have patience and be persistent. Some examples of what we've heard (although almost all of the bad experiences happened in Trinidad): talking to the person at immigration who is in charge and asking what was required for the year visa, being told one requisite at a time, then when you bring it back, she says ok now you need requisite two, and proceeds to do this for a week.

Another example with the same immigration person was when a student from Spain went to her and said here are all of the documents, I need the one-year visa and the person responded: Where did you hear of these requirements, they're wrong ... I don't even know you, you expect me to give you a visa.

A third and most humorous example involved another Spanish student who was applying for the visa and when he gave pictures with his application (you have to give tons of little 4 by 4 cm pictures with a red background with every application) he had a beard, which he had since shaved it off. So the person says, "you have a beard in these photos, we can't process it since you don't have a beard now". The student responded "what do you want me to do, I can't just grow a new beard on the spot". So the person says, "ok with a beard, that'll be an extra 15 boliviano fee". (Note: 1 US dollar is ~7 Bolivianos)

Our quest: a one-year temporary residence visa. The requirements numerous, the requirements for the requirements even more numerous. To even apply for this visa, we had to first get a special purpose visa in the US which was a long and complicated process, which actually now seems like a cake walk.

The first two requisites for the one-year visa we had to obtain in San Borja: a local background check and a residency verification. For these, we needed a host of documents, including a signed certificate from the owner of the home where we live, photocopies of two witness IDs, a copy of the title of the house, a copy of the blueprints, photocopies of our visa, pictures of us, and a formal memorial from a lawyer requesting these documents. The one police officer who deals with these requests was a patronizing cop, who was both by-the-book and reluctant to do anything. When we first came to him, he said we were short four of these requirements. The next day, he said we needed separate applications for both Asher and Kelly. When we gave him those, he said come back Monday.

On Monday, he was not at work. On Tuesday, he said he needed to call the police in Trinidad, but to call them he needed us to buy a prepaid card for his cell-phone (all cell phones in Bolivia are pre-paid and can be "recharged" at local stores). After he called, he said we needed to go to Trinidad, the capital of the department of beni, to do the local background check. So we asked if we could do the local residency verification without it, and he said to be at our house at 4 pm.

We waited outside our house for an hour and a half and the cop never showed up. On Wednesday morning, we went to the police office again and he followed us to our house and verified our residency. We then spent 3 hours while he typed up the documents. We got the documents and then talked to the police captain. The local police captain was an interesting, slightly chubby/stocky, mid 40's man with thinning hair and bottom braces who was very nice, but ultimately corrupt. We noticed he has a calendar on the wall with a topless female police officer on it. Asher actually snapped a picture of this, it's just not something we see every day (but we'd rather not post that picture, but it is available upon request). However, it is ridiculous that it's on his wall as it's very misogynistic.

He said that while they couldn't do the local background check normally, he may be able to call someone and do it for a fee of 140 bolivianos for each of us. So we paid it. We came back Thursday, hopeful to finish the process, yet again the first officer said they couldn't do the local background check. We asked to speak to the captain and he said to come back that afternoon. We later explained to him, again, that all we needed was a local background check, he said "oh, a local background check, ok. Come back Friday".

We came back Friday morning ready to go and were fingerprinted 20 times, but were told to come back again Friday afternoon at 5. We came back and after an hour, the by-the-book cop finished the local background check and took it to the captain. We went into his office one last time, thinking he was going to give the documents to us, pat us on the back, and wish us well. But ... instead he said that each document cost an extra 200 bolivianos to "process". We tried to say that we already paid, but he made up a story about how that was for the residency requirements. Having only 600 bolivianos on us at the time and needing 300 to get to Trinidad and for food, I asked if it was possible to only pay 300 total, and he said "well for you two, OK".

In the end, we paid two "fees" for 580 bolivianos including one 25% discount, but hey at least we're done with the local police, where we spent 15 hours over 9 visits in a week and a half. In the end it's all a game, you can't get too frustrated, you just have to play the game and be patient and persistent. If graduate school teaches you one thing it's that, patience and persistence.

We are now in Trinidad, where so far the experience has been much easier. We've seen many anti-corruption posters in the police station here, which give us hope for the direction Bolivia is heading.

We'll next do a blog post on Trinidad with pictures (not many exciting pictures to take while sitting in offices), including a description of the strike going on today to protest a national road project that would go through indigenous lands.